March 31, 2020

Newborn screening for SCID expands to more countries!

Newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiencies (SCID) is slowly but surely becoming a reality in many countries.
This path was initiated by the United States in 2010, with the Department of Health and Human Services recommending SCID for uniform screening. With IDF’s (national PID patient group in the US) efforts and campaigns, the United States implemented universal newborn screening for SCID in 2018.
In the meanwhile, In the meanwhile, IPOPI, its NMOs and many medical stakeholders were busy pushing for SCID NBS implementation in other countries. The following countries added SCID to their panel of diseases to be screened at birth, such as, Taiwan (2012), Israel (2015), Iceland (2017), New Zealand (2017), Norway (2018), Switzerland (2019), Sweden (2019)and Germany (2019). In March 2020, a new country was added to the list: Denmark!

If we were to look at regions or provinces in which babies can also benefit  from SCID screening, we would be looking at a much longer list: several regions in Italy, provinces in Canada, a region in Spain, some states in Australia, in Brazil, etc.

This is just the beginning! The Netherlands is currently doing a pilot project on newborn screening for SCID already including all newborns in the country and  this pilot programme should become a reality in 2021. Other countries or regions, such as France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Flanders (Belgium), Austria, South Korea or Saudi Arabia are considering a SCID newborn screening programme or pilot projects. IPOPI is more than ever committed to making SCID newborn screening a reality for as many countries as possible and we are working at EU level to ensure newborn screening becomes a priority.

Stay tuned for more information on newborn screening!